Growing Radish Zapatay take note.

[jal_ut]

Radishes are quite easy to grow. I find the Cherry Belle to be the mose reliable producer here.

Here are some tips to get them to make a good root:

They do well in a sandy soil. If you have heavy soil, get a bucket of sand and mix it into your soil where you will grow the radishes. Also amend the soil with something to add some nitrogen.

Make just a small bed 2 feet square.

Plant the seed one at a time and on a grid pattern every 2 inches both ways. Plant the seed 1/2 inch deep. If they are crowded, you won't get good roots. It is worth the extra time to carefully place the seed.

Pat the soil down after planting. They usually germinate in less than a week.

They should have full sun.

You need to keep the soil damp. If they get dry they will bolt.

Watch for insect damage. A little diatomaceous earth should take care of any insects.

You should get some radishes in about 25 to 30 days. Two weeks after the first planting make another planting. You can do this every two weeks for a continued supply of radishes.
I have had good luck here planting anytime all season. If you get really hot weather like 95 + they may not do well during the hot weather.
Good Luck.

[Zapatay]

Hey - Thanks for drawing my attention so subtly, jal

I appreciate this - very much - and I will follow your instructions - to a t in hopes I have a successful year.

Now I'm anxious ... Can I try this now but in containers indoor?

Ugh when does spring arrive? Chicago area is expecting below zero temps this weekend....

[Duh_Vinci]

Good tips jal_ut!

Cherry Bell and Champion are consistent performers in our garden.

Regards,
D

[garden5]

This brings up something I have wondered about.

Jal, are you saying that I can grow radishes 2 in. equidistant, as in plants 2 in. apart and rows 2 in. apart?

I've often wondered if the reason for the increased distance of the rows was only for ease of harvesting and weeding. I mean, couldn't we plant the rows the same distance apart as we plant the plants without any growing difficulties?

I think that this concept may very among varieties.

[hendi_alex]

Garden5, you may want to read a bit on square foot gardening, which does away with rows, and rather spaces plants equidistant for maximum production. I think that there are quite a few variations of intensive planting techniques but square foot gardening is one of the more popular ones.

[gixxerific]

You should be fine Zapatay radishes are among the easiest and definitely fastest growing crops around. Yes you can grow them inside I have.

You can grow them outside pretty soon if planting carrots, plant radishes along side them they will be done by the time the carrots need the room.

I was posting when Alex was and equidistant platning does well with many crops lettuce does well like this in a 2-1-2 hard to explain but in a x pattern like this
L--L
--L--
L-- L

[garden5]

Garden5, you may want to read a bit on square foot gardening, which does away with rows, and rather spaces plants equidistant for maximum production. I think that there are quite a few variations of intensive planting techniques but square foot gardening is one of the more popular ones.

Thanks, Heni_Alex. I've heard of that term before, but now I'm really intrigued. I like the sound "intensive planting." I'm thinking that the result will be smaller fruits/plants, but more of them.

[jal_ut]

[img]https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/radish1.jpg[/img]

Yes radish in rows two inches apart and spaced 2 inches in the row. In other words in a grid pattern 2x2. You don't need a very large space to grow lots of radishes like this. They do need this much space though. Don't crowd them closer.

I would not try to grow them indoors. Just not enough sunshine. gixxerific says otherwise, so, I guess you can try it. You are not out much if it doesn't work.

Good Luck.

[gixxerific]

I must admit I didn't grow them all the way to fruition. I needed the room for other things. But they were getting fairly big when I ditched them, it was just a "I'm gonna plant something today" in the winter kind of thing.

So if Jal say's no you might want to listen to him. But than again like he said it's worth a try.

I'm planting some tomorrow to see if they will go the distance. Gotta experiment you know.

[hendi_alex]

When using intensive planting, I've never noticed having smaller fruit size. Perhaps I'll get less production per plant, like with green beans, am not sure, but the beans still grow to full size as compared to when row planted. Intensive planting reduces the need for weeding, as the weeds generally can not compete against the mass of veggies. The practice also supposedly gives maximum yield per area planted. Square foot gardening particularly lends itself to well defined spaces, as is the case with most raised bed arrangements.

[garden5]

When using intensive planting, I've never noticed having smaller fruit size. Perhaps I'll get less production per plant, like with green beans, am not sure, but the beans still grow to full size as compared to when row planted. Intensive planting reduces the need for weeding, as the weeds generally can not compete against the mass of veggies. The practice also supposedly gives maximum yield per area planted. Square foot gardening particularly lends itself to well defined spaces, as is the case with most raised bed arrangements.

That's it, fewer per plant, not smaller.

Now, this all comes down to this question: do the extra plants that are planted produce enough fruit to make up for, and surpass, the amount of fruit that you lose due to lowered production per plant?

Now, in my research, I have come across one study that was done on a commercial tomato operation in Asia. They planted plots (I believe acres) with the tomatoes being from 2ft. apart per plant to 1ft. apart per plant.

The results found that the plots with the closest spacing of plants indeed had fewer tomatoes per plant, but produced more lbs. of fruit per acre than any other plot. Also, the closely spaced tomatoes yielded fewer sun-scalded fruit than the other plots.

This all indicates that the answer to my question is "Yes."

[jal_ut]

Radishes need sunlight, water, and fertile soil to develop a nice root quickly. If they don't have these things, they will grow some leaves then bolt without ever making a good eating root. This is fine if you are going for seed.

Given the right conditions, radishes will have a root large enough to eat before they get many leaves. They are quite amazing little plants.

[Zapatay]

I tried the container, it began well ... growth has been stagnant for about a week - Ideas?
[img]https://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q157/zapatay/100_7711.jpg[/img]

[gixxerific]

here are mine they are taking along time but they are forming bulbs under my lights. I would have to say they should be done by now and probably would be if outside in the proper conditions.

[img]https://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj185/gixxerific/Gardening/DSC03382.jpg[/img]

[elvawith]

I am going to try these in a pot also. Will this work with a grow light indoors? I love radishes but live in Wisconsin so it will be a LONG time before I can grow them outdoors!

[gixxerific]

I am going to try these in a pot also. Will this work with a grow light indoors? I love radishes but live in Wisconsin so it will be a LONG time before I can grow them outdoors!

If it were me I'd wait unless you have some VERY high power lights and the ability to put them in a south facing window. In my pic above they were started I believe in Jan and are still tiny. Just wanted to see if it could be done. Jal say's it can't be done, and not trying to prove him wrong or anything, just wanted to see if I could do it. I think it's possible but will take twice as long as outside in the right conditions.

But if you want to try, experimentation is always a great thing to do.

[Zapatay]

wonder how they'll taste when ready ....

[applestar]

I was thinking those leaves look nice and tender. I don't like radish leaves raw - too furry, but I'd quick saute them.

[Zapatay]

Jal!!! I did it! I did it!!! (I hope you see this post)
Take a look
[img]https://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q157/zapatay/IMG00748-20110629-1725.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q157/zapatay/IMG00746-20110629-1724.jpg[/img]

I never thought I could grow radishes but they were great. We ate them with a liversausage + mustard sandwich yesterday evening.

[Beansie_time]

Jal_ut,
I wanted to let you know I also followed your advice and planted four varieties of radish. Here are the results of two of them
White Icicle and French Breakfast:

[img]https://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg40/beansie_time/WIRFBR.jpg[/img]

I planted 4 square feet of radishes in a SFG bed. White Icicle, Cherry Belle, French Breakfast, and Watermelon. The Watermelon are still in the ground, but the other three have been harvested, replanted, and have already sprouted up again. All three of the harvested types have been excellent sliced on salads and sandwiches. The Greens have been outstanding sauteed with garlic and olive oil. I sauteed the greens and tossed them with italian sausage and pasta in the way I would usually cook Broccoli Rabe. They worked perfectly. I can't wait for the watermelon radish to be ready because I'm excited just to slice them.
Thanks for everyone who has helped me become a better gardener here.

[jal_ut]

Zapatay, your radishes in the pot are elongated, reaching for light. Ordinarily radish seedlings just emerging in sunlight will not be very tall the cotyledons will be very close to the soil. This is why I said it will be hard to grow them indoors.
Congratulations on your nice harvest!

Beansie_time, very nice radishes. I hope your watermelon radishes turn out well. I tried them and didn't get a thing. Maybe they didn't like my environment?

I know its going to get hot here any minute, but I am tempted to plant some more radishes today before I turn the water on. I have sure been enjoying the spring radishes.

[Beansie_time]

The Watermelon radishes are growing well right now, the seed packaging said 60 days from planting to harvest, so I still have about two weeks to go. The greens are much larger than my other radishes and I'm starting to worry that I may have overcrowded them. They are apparently a much larger variety of radish than the others I have grown.

I may pull a few this weekend to make some room for the others to get larger, but there are certainly already good sized roots on them all. Bigger than the cherry belles already and showing no signs of stopping yet. I have been plucking greens that have been spreading into adjacent squares recently as well.
I'll post pics here once I pull them.

[Zapatay]

Hey Jal - No indoor pot radishes for me. I grew mine outside in a bed just as you described.

I think those other photos were from another poster

[garden5]

Congratulations, Zapatay! Your harvest looks great!

What made the difference for you? Did you amend your soil with sand at all?

I had a very rainy spring, so never got any radishes in.

[Zapatay]

Thanks jal & garden5

Yes - I think the sand was the key. Sand seemed to keep the soil cooler and obviously much more loose. I added a lot of sand - by hand I mixed with the existing soil and added mulch.

[Fig3825]

I feel good after reading all of this. I planted mine about 6 days ago (in a 2 x 2 grind in a single square foot) and they are already coming up. I'll try to get a picture soon and will post. I use a hybrid square foot planting scheme. I have my garden subdivided into square feet using string. Some things I plant in rows in successive square feet across the short dimension of the raised beds. For example, I have 4ea 4 x 10' raised beds. In one, I have 10 tomato plants each a foot from the edge of the bed, 2' in between plant. For the radishes, I put in a single square foot with the rest of my small space veggies, like carrots, beets and lettuce. Peppers are in another bed and are a foot apart but offset a foot, so they make a checkered pattern in the 9 square feet I have them in (5 plants exually spaced within the 9 square feet). So far it seems to work. We'll see how the scheme works when everything is actually taller than 6-10 inches!

[Zapatay]

goodness!
Good Luck - we look forward to photos

[Fig3825]

This is all about my garden, including pictures:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37049

However, if you read the post, I made some poor decisions and overthought it a lot in my attempt to ward off pests before I even really began and killed nearly everything in the garden (too much water, strong homemade pesticides, etc). I pretty much did everything wrong. So, over the last several weeks, I have nearly replanted everything in the garden. I tested the soil and fertilized. I built a new pea trellis. I built new squirrel cages to keep the squirrels and rabbits out and this is an ongoing process to this day because there is only so much time. Matter of fact, I replanted everything over the past few weeks except 1 squash plant and a row of corn. I think it's too late to get corn to grow, but I'm going to try anyway because that's how I roll!